Nice Guys
by Dragonsfire07
Summary: Clouffie Cloud is a young Shinra soldier and is forced to stay in Wutai during the repairs on his squadron's transport where he meets a materia theif named Yuffie... Rated T for language.
1. Part 1: Air sick again

Pre-story stuff

This story takes place BEFORE the events of the video game, a what if so to speak… But this is also a spoiler alert because this will reveal certain details found out LATE in the game, so don't say anything if the game gets in any part ruined by me, it'd be your fault.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or any rights blah blah blah of Final Fantasy VII, although I do own a copy of the game…. But unfortunately that count in a legal sense….

Italics represent Cloud's _thoughts _in this story just to let you know.

On to the Story!!!

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Part 1: Air sick…. again…

_This… is one of the worst feelings in the world, motion sickness. Everywhere we go, everything we're in I get motion sickness, something that I'm… well sick and tired of._

"Look sharp boys."

_Zack, the SOLDIER sent with us to monitor our mission._

"You don't look so good Cloud."

"Do I ever?"

_Zack and I have been on quite a few missions before and we consider each other fairly good friends. He's been recommending for the SOLDIER program for some months now, but neither one of us have received any word yet… unless you're the great Sephiroth, it could take years just to become even a low-class…_

"I guess not…"

_We both chuckle to ourselves, since we always go through this conversation. Next he'll say something about walking around…_

"You should try walking around…"

_Told you_

"…that's what always helps me."

"I would if I wasn't strapped to a bench."

Zack chuckles

"We should be landing soon anyways for maintenance… thanks to that lucky shot that the rebels made."

_We were sent to settle a rebellion against Shinra in a __remote__ location… I don't even see why we went there… but anyways when we were finished and taking off in a last ditch effort to get rid of is a few rebels tried to shoot us down, damaging the #3 and shutting down the #2 engines, but luckily we had support form the Air Force… I don't even want to guess as to what exactly happened to those poor souls._

"Do you know where?"

"Near a settlement called Wutai."

"As in the home of the people that declared war on Shinra years ago."

"The same."

"I don't think that they'd like it that much."

"They don't have a choice in the matter, they're still under marshal law although the blunt of the force has moved out, the higher ups have even asked us to bring the last of those forces home with us."

_The war with Wutai, that's why I left home so long ago to become a SOLDIER, and become a hero just like Sephiroth… but by the time I got here the war was over, but I made a promise, and I can't go home until I become a SOLDIER._

A pilot calls Zack to the cockpit, after some talking Zack turns around and shouts at all of us, "Get ready for a rough landing boys, there's no landing strip so to speak where we're going. I want all of you to be on your best behavior while we're there, show them exactly how nice Shinra can actually be."

"This should be fun, I'm going to get so many dirty looks."

"Hey, at least you got a mask to hide your face, I assure that I'll get more simply because of my SOLDIER uniform."

"Wanna bet, say 200 Gil?"

"You're on!"

_There's a sudden drop in altitude. _

"Here we go boys"

_I had no idea what I was in for…_

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_So that's it, for now I hope… sorry for the shortness, the next should be a bit longer. So love it or hate it review please and I should be back soon… romance will come in later chapters, but that's later… hopefully…_


	2. Part 2: Rough Landings and Bad Food

Okay, I'm back, but this time it's MUCH longer than the last one, but anyway, here we go again!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or any rights blah blah blah of Final Fantasy VII, although I do own a copy of the game…. But unfortunately that count in a legal sense….

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Part 2: Rough landings and bad food…. What's Next?

_So that wasn't the best of landings, I don't know exactly what happened but I know at some point we must have hit an elephant or something and the plane jerked hard enough to hit my head pretty hard… so now not only am I still a little sick from the ride but I got a headache to boot._

"Alright gentlemen, get your gear and get of the plane, form a line outside and wait for your next orders." Zack

_Finally off this damn plane… So after some meandering about we all wound up outside in our "line" so to speak, and after watching Zack talk to the radioman for some time he comes over, sarcasm to tell us some more good news I expect /sarcasm ._

"Attention!" Someone for way down the line yells, no telling exactly who.

"At ease, you're kind superiors have commandeered the local inn for you to stay at for the few day's we'll be here, so get ready, the trucks should be here soon to take you there, Dismissed."

_Wow, that really is good news. I was expecting to sleep on the ground this whole time._

"Cloud." _Zack._

"Yes sir."

"Don't worry about formalities right now, but I wanted to tell you about the inn…"

"And…"

"There are only twenty beds."

"But there's twenty-two of us including you."

"Yeah I know, but luckily there's a man that'll let us stay in his home for the time being."

"How do you know that he won't slit our throats in our sleep?"

"We don't, we'll just have to be very careful."

"If I die and you don't… I'm going to haunt you're ass…"

"Ha ha ha, don't worry I'll take care of you! Oh, look, the trucks are here, let's get going."

_Ah fuck, trucks, here we go again…_

"Zack, tell me about the man we're staying with, like what's name?"

_Me, performing a pathetic attempt at trying to get my mind off my stomach._

"They call him Mr. Misugi."

"What about his first name?"

Zack shrugs his shoulders

"You serious? Nobody told you?"

"I don't think anyone knows."

"That's interesting, a man with no first name, what's he do for a living?"

"He's retired, he owned a materia shop until the end of the war when he was forced to shut down his shop, but lucky for him he had saved up enough to live a comfortable life afterwards."

_That's right, shortly after surrendering to Shinra, they were striped of all of their materia and can no longer hold and as part of the agreement._

"Well I guess he doesn't sound too bad."

"Ah, we're there…"

_A town comes into view, every building seems so old but as if they could stand for hundreds years more, beautiful, even though I can only see so much of it on this kind of night, a waxing three-quarters moon (that means that it will be full in a few days), but it's very cloudy, it may rain soon also._

"This should be a great trip! Treat it like your vacation, but let's get to this man's house first, maybe some grub too."

"I'm not worried about food right now."

"Oh yeah, the motion sickness thing."

_Finally off damn vehicles… the only time that I've never gotten sick on was Zack's motorcycle a few months ago when he let me go around the block a couple times, I think that I'll get one myself when I'm done with Shinra._

**Skipping of pointless walking and searching for this man's "House."**

_> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> _

_You call this a house! More like a mansion!_

**Just get back to the story**

_Whatever dude I was just saying…_

**Just get back to the story before I hit delete!**

_Alright…_

_> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> _

"Holy shit! You said this guy was retired!"

"But I also said that it was comfortably, think about it, this man handled all the materia for an entire army."

"Well I didn't think about that but I guess you have a point."

_You would have had the exact same reaction as me upon seeing this place, let's just say that it rivals that of a royal palace._

"Hit the door bell."

_I look to the right of the door and there it is, a golden button in the mouth of looks to be an eagle._

"No need to be modest in a house like this I guess."

_After hitting the button, bells start chiming and ringing inside the house… Which from the sound it, could double as church bells. After standing around for a couple minutes we start to hear the sounds of the large door unlocking._

"How many lock does this guy have?"

"Well with a home this big I'm sure that he has quite a few things to protect."

"I guess."

_Finally the door opens… a hunched over old man on the other side._

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"We're here to see Mr. Misugi." Zack

"I am Mr. Misugi, now how can I help you?"

"We're the soldiers that our superiors told you about." Zack

"Oh yes, come in, come in, please. Follow me I'll show you to your rooms."

"Thank you so much sir, we were also wondering if you could share some of you food with us also?" Zack

"Of course, but your rooms first, okay?"

_We start walking down the longest hallway ever._

"So, sense you will be staying with me, I should at least know your names."

"Zack Fair."

"Cloud Strife."

"It speaks!"

"Excuse me."

"Well you have said anything yet and your friend here as done all the talking, I was beginning to think that you were a mute."

"Oh, no sir it's just that I'm some-what amazed by your house."

"Just call me Mr. Misugi, please. But yes after years of collecting I need a house as large as this one."

_After all this time I finally realized that this house is filled many nick knacks, books, pictures, and so many more things that I cannot recall… After some while of walking we come by an open door and curiosity causes me to look over into the room, standing there astonished this room houses only one thing, a glass case sitting on a stone pedestal. In the case I see something shining. I start to move closer to inspect what is within it…_

"I wouldn't take another step closer if I were you."

_I turn around to see Mr. Misugi and Zack staring at me._

"Why not?"

"Security system designed to stop virtually any type of intruder."

"What are you protecting?" Zack

"My materia of course."

"Wait, materia?" _Zack, getting ready to take action_

"Don't worry, I have a license to have it, I just can't carry it." _The old man pulls out a slip of paper and shows it to Zack._

_"That does look like the president's signature."_

"Can I see it?"

_They both look over at me._

"Certainly, just stand back for a moment."

_The old man slides a panel next to the door that I don't think either Zack or me noticed it until the old man did so. He punched a few buttons and then scanned his palm, after that room started to hum for a few seconds as the system was shutting down._

"You may proceed."

_I nod in appreciation as I begin to walk in, and start to get a real good look at the materia. Amazing, it's not like any other type I have ever seen before. It's orange in color, almost golden it seemed. It must be rare beyond belief._

"I found it in a cave during my travels around the world."

_In my daze I didn't notice Mr. Misugi stand next to me._

"It was surrounded by hieroglyphs thousands of years old, pictures of which are on that wall over there. They tell of it being able to control the memories of a person, they used it on people that had suffered great tragedies in their lives, but they stopped because after using on people they often felt that they were missing great parts of themselves. So they put it away feeling that it would be best that people had their losses, instead of forgetting them."

"Makes sense."

"But before sealing it away, they gave the memories back and the people felt whole again."

"Only myths have happy endings." Zack added from the back of the room.

"Maybe, but it still makes a great story!"

"I wouldn't even know how to use such a materia, my only experience being the lightning that Zack gave me."

"Give it time and you will learn to use all materia. Anyways time to move on."

_We finally leave the room and the moment we step out the room begins to hum once again, activating the system I assume. Before turning the corner I look back at the room one last time… So after getting to our room and setting down our stuff we followed Mr. Misugi to his kitchen, where he pulls a mysterious green rice-like food out of his fridge and gives Zack and I an equal share._

"I assume that you boys know how to get back to your room?"

"Yes, we do."

"Good, then I'll be off to bed. I'll see you young men tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Zack and I say in unison, and Mr. Misugi takes his leave.

"I'm afraid of it."

"Just eat it, it's food isn't it?"

_So I take a bite, chew a couple times… then it hits me, this food is unbearable and I spit it up and cough because of the gagging reflex that it caused within me. After coughing for a while and taking a drink of water to wash it out of my mouth, I notice that Zack is almost finished with his portion._

"How can you eat that?!"

"You've apparently never tried my mother's cooking."

_I throw my "food" into the trash._

"I'm off to bed, I'll see you in the morning."

"Night."

_Finally, sleep… when my head hits the pillow I begin to think about that materia, maybe that old man is right, maybe I'll be able to wield such materia in the future… who knows, but now it's time for sleep……_

…Z…Z…Z…Z…

**CRASH!!!**

_What the hell? I look around the room and see Zack still sleeping, how did he manage to stay asleep after that? I might want to check to see what that was, maybe Mr. Misugi fell and he might need help… I walk into the hallway and I see….._

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Ooooh, cliffhanger… you'll have to come back later to see what happens, but in the meantime you could review it if you like.


	3. Part 3: Lessons in Spinking

Well, here's chapter 3, sorry it took a bit longer than the others to write, my new job's been giving me trouble keeping up with past post times… However Enjoy!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or any rights blah blah blah of Final Fantasy VII, although I do own a copy of the game…. But unfortunately that doesn't count in a legal sense….

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Part 3: Lessons in spinking

_Damn it's dark in here, an electric clock on the wall reads 1:30. I can't see a thing… oh shit, I'm such an idiot, I'm still wearing my mask. Well, might as well make the best of being stupid so I might as well turn on the night vision. That's much better. The sound came from the main hall it seemed. Someone comes into view, walking around as if they were blind, I guess they can't see in the dark, an advantage… what's that in their hand? A glowing ball… now it hits me, my lightning materia is missing… Well, here comes the fun part, I grab their wrist and that's all I need (my basic training covered close quarters combat), and in a flash I have him on the ground holding one arm on his back and the other under my knee._

_Upon retrieving my lost materia I hear footsteps and then, _**FLASH**_, blind… someone turned on the lights while I still had my night vision on. By the time I turned it off it was to late, I couldn't see a damn thing. Even though I was completely stunned for the moment my body hadn't released my prisoner… shapes that's all I can see right now, no detail yet though._

"Not again…" _Mr. Misugi_

"When will you learn your lesson young lady?"

_Young lady!? I look down at the person underneath me, and sure enough, it's a young girl by what I could see at the moment… the focus returns finally, she looks to be about fourteen… Very pretty at that, an angelic face that I have never seen another even compare…_

"I did, I didn't try to take yours did I?"

"I guess that could count but still!"

/\Cloud still admiring/\

"Would you let me up please?"

_Oh shit! I could have let her up a long time ago… what's wrong with me? I can't think straight._

"Oh! Um…. Of course… sorry."

"Thank you."

"Good job." _Zack finally decided to join us._

_Zack walks over and reaches into her pocket._

"Hey what do you think you're doing?!" _The girl_.

_Zack retrieves two pieces of materia, one green, one blue, and holds his hand up to her mouth._

"Fine…" _She spits one last piece out of her mouth. _"Happy now._"_

"Yes, thank you. Cloud, escort this girl home, please."

"Okay…"

_Zack stares at me with a confused look._ "You alright?"

"Oh, yea I'm fine… I'm just… um… tired."

"Yea okay, good night once again Mr. Misugi."

"Good night gentlemen, and I hope that I don't see you any time soon young lady." _Mr. Misugi walks off into the darkness._

_The girl looks back at me, with a some-what disgusted look, can't blame her really. Better get going if I'm going to be back in time to get good rest._

"Lead the way." _I open the door and she storms out in a huff._

_I get to thinking while we're walking, "most people would have shot you on sight, or pressed charges at least. You're lucky that we're such nice guys."_

"What?"

_Did I say that out loud?_

"You're lucky that we're such nice guys."

_What the hell!? I didn't mean to say that… What's wrong with me?_

"Fuck you!"

"That was uncalled for."

_Why am I still talking? It's as if my mouth has a mind of it's own! Just keep walking Cloud, don't think, don't speak, you don't need for this girl to hate you more than she already does. She stopped; we can't be there yet, be ready for anything!_

"Sorry."

"…Wait, what?"

"I'm sorry," she turns around, "about stealing your materia."

"Why?"

"Because like you said back there, most people in Shinra would have shot me on sight."

_"Did I say everything aloud back there?"_

"Not really 'aloud', I just have good hearing."

_Fuck!!_

"Do you talk to yourself often?" _She says this with a smile on her face… "Beautiful"_

"Thank you!"

_Stop thinking, now…_

"I don't really do this, maybe it's the bump I got on my head when we landed."

"Okay…" _she knows the effect she's having on me._

_She smiles at me again. _"My name's Yuffie, a.k.a beautiful." _She holds out her hand._

_Well I don't feel threatened by her so why not?_

"Cloud, a.k.a the guy that keeps talking to himself."

"Nice to meet you Cloud."

_The smile gets a little bigger as we start to shake hands. I smile to, even though she can't see it_.

_**FLIP. CRASH. CRUNCH.**_

_Next thing I know I'm on the ground with one arm behind me and I'm pinned… you let your guard down moron…_

"And now we're even."

"Even?"

"Yes, I'm just returning the favor."

"Oh, sorry about that, but I don't remember being this rough!"

_**POP.**_

_My shoulder dislocated_

"Ah arhg!"

"Oh my gosh, I'm soooooo sorry." _Yuffie jumps off of me when this happens, I'm assuming that she thinks that she injured me severely, but no, not really… maybe._

"It's fine," _I stand up and raise my arm above my head._

**SNORP**

"My drill sergeant was a real asshole and would always use me as the example." _Some-what true…_ "And I was born with the gift of being double-jointed in this arm." _Gotta look tough so she doesn't feel so bad about it… damn my arm hurts…_

"Oh that's so good to hear, I thought that I might have broke your arm, I guess I don't know my own strength!"

_You can say that again!_

"It's nothing… so Yuffie, where do you live? The least I could do now is be a gentleman and walk next to you…"

"Okay, but you have to do one of two things for me."

"Anything to make up for earlier..." _Anything? I just met her and I'm willing to do anything? Stop spinking (speaking before thinking for those who don't know) now, for your own good._

"You can either," _dreading what could be next, well I could just say no, _"give me your materia," _that's a definite no, _"or take your mask off."

_Damn I'm bad about that… I'd forgotten once again, I guess that these years in Shinra have gotten me a little used to it. But I don't see any problem with her request. I shrug my shoulders…. Ow…… and I start to take it off._

"That's what I thought."

"Better?"

"Of course!"

"Now would you lead the way?"

"Side by side though, right?"

"Of course!"

_Now she seems A LOT happier than when we started… I guess my spinking isn't so bad after all, because my mother told me once, "Anything said without thought can be bad, but it could also be said from the heart." I miss her._

"You like to think, don't you?"

"Hm, oh, yeah… sometimes my mind wanders without me even noticing. I hate it sometimes."

"I like it."

"Me too."

_She looks at me funny… wait, what just happened there…_

"My mind wanders all the time."

"About what?"

"Materia."

_I should have guessed._

"My family, the future, love."

_That's better._

"About all the materia my father had, about all the materia I'll have, about all the materia the man that I'll fall in love with will have."

_Square one…_

"What do you think about?"

"Me?"

"No, the other guy with spiky blonde hair… of course you!"

"The same things really, well almost, just without all the materia and it's the girl I'll fall in love with."

"Any candidates in mind? Like a certain beautiful someone?"

"Uh, umm… well, uh.."

"Relax, I'm just messing with you. My goodness, you need to lighten up."

"Sorry, it's just the past couple years nothing like this has happened, or ever for that matter really, and I guess I'm a little unprepared."

"Don't worry about it."

_We start walking again..._

"So, what's a nice guy like you doing in Shinra?"

"Straight to the hard questions, hm?"

"You don't have to answer it if you don't want to."

"It's not that, it's just you might find it kind of silly."

"Tell me anyways."

"I wanted to be a hero."

"That's not silly at all."

"The silly part is the fact that I truely believed that I would be in SOLDIER in no time."

"Well that's a little silly, but not much... there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero."

"I guess you're right."

"Who's your damsel?"

"Damsel?"

"All heros have a damsel in distress so to speak, someone that they'll be there to protect."

"I had one, but that was a long time ago... I don't think that she would count anymore really."

"I always could use a hero."

"What?"

"Not the brightest are you? I was wondering if you'd mind being my hero?"

"It doesn't look like you really need one to me... but I guess it wouldn't hurt..."

"Good, you better be there when I need you!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"He he he!"

_After a short sillence and some more walking._

"So tell me Cloud, what's the best part of Shinra?"

"There isn't much I could say that is good really, but I guess that I'd say it's the places I get to see, and sometime the people I meet... Like you for instance," _she blushes at this,_ "or without Shinra I would never have met Zack, my best friend... the other one you stole from."

"By the way could you tell him that I'm sorry?"

"No problem."

"What's the worst part?"

"The traveling... in just about everything we're in I get sick."

_She looks at me suprised._

"You get motion sick too? I hate it so much!"

"The only thing that I haven't gotten sick on is a motorcycle. I'm going to get one when I'm finished with Shinra."

"Would you let me ride it with you?"

"You can be the first, I'll even let you ride in front of me."

"Yay! Thanks Cloud."

_After walking for a little while longer._

"Crazy."

"What?"

"It's just when I got here I thought that this whole stay was going to be horrible, filled with all kinds of nasty looks and people despising me on sight… but here I am walking a girl home having a wonderful conversation."

_She stops and looks at me_, "Maybe I'm not the only one that needs to judge something before I try to get to know it." _She poked me on the nose when she said it._

"Maybe you have a point."

"Maybe I do. So, do you really think that I'm beautiful?"

"Straight to the point huh? Well… uh, um." _I can feel the blood rush to my cheeks._

_She stops and smiles at me._ "You know you don't have to say anything, you're blushes tell me the whole story. I can make the rest of the way from here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's just around the corner."

"Can I ask you one question though?"

"Shoot."

"Why'd you take our materia?"

"I don't answer that until the second date."

"Date?!"

_She just smiles at me, takes one step, and kisses my cheek._

"Be glad, I normally don't do that until the second date either." She puts her hand on my cheek, "You know, you're not to bad looking yourself."

_She starts to run off into the dark,_ "wait, will I see you again, how will I find you?"

"So many questions. I'll come to you. Goodnight Cloud."

"Goodnight…. Yuffie."

_I look down at my watch. 4:30!!!!! HOLY shit! How long did we talk? I gotta get back soon, and in a mad dash I make it back in a couple minutes… I wasn't that far away??? did we walk in circles, how come I didn't notice that? Whatever it's time to sleep, I make it inside and collapse on the bed… damn I'm tired…zzzz_

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And there it is, hopefully I'll have the next chapter ready soon, but until then, please review and I hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.


	4. Part 4: New Clothes and Life Lessons

Part 4, I'm back, with a vengeance. Long awaited and without further ado, here's what you want.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or any rights blah blah blah of Final Fantasy VII, although I do own a copy of the game…. But unfortunately that doesn't count in a legal sense….

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**Poke.**

_I don't want to wake up just yet._

**Poke Poke.**

"Just five more minutes." _Zzz Yuffie_

**Jab.**

"Ouch"

"Come on bro! Get up, we have three days to waste."

"What time is it?"

"Its 9:30, time to get up and hit the town."

"What's the point? Everyone knows that we're outsiders and that we're from Shin-Ra… Simply because of our uniforms we'll be hated…" _Still hazy and groggy from the lack of sleep_.

"We'll I've got some good news for you then. I managed to get us three days of leave as well so we can wear what we want while we're here."

"All we have is our uniforms."

"Which is why we're gonna buy some new clothes."

"I don't have any gil on me, I wasn't expecting to be here for three days." _I roll over in attempt to get some more sleep._

"I'll spot you."

"If it's anything with a flower pattern don't expect me to actually pay you back."

"Then I'll just buy two in my size if so the case. Now come on quit draggin ass and let's go. What time did you get back last night?"

"It was a little after 2:00." _Liar._

"…"

"It might have been a little later. I wasn't really paying attention to the time, I just wanted to get to bed." _I little more truthful._

"Well either way let's go." _Zack jabs me in the side once more._

"Alright I'm up. That shit hurts you know"

"Kind of the point."

_After finally getting up and about we make our way out of Mr. Misugi's home. He was in the main hall polishing an old grandfather clock and said nothing to us but to wish a good day as we walked out of the door._

"Well we managed to make it through the night without the old man killing us."

"Maybe that girl coming in interrupted him in doing so."

"Yuffie."

"What?"

"Her name is Yuffie."

"So that's what you were saying in your sleep this morning."

_Again what the hell!?_

"Ha ha, don't worry man you were just mumbling this time, nothing really embarrassing."

"Yea yea…"

_A very brief moment of silence_

"Rabbits!"

"You think you're funny don't you?"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

_I wonder if Yuffie would find it as funny as him… or would she just treat it as she did my spinking._

"I said something stupid one time, are you ever going to let me live that down."

"Something like that? Maybe… but the day that happens I'm pretty sure that something else will come out much funnier."

_Looking around I notice that the streets are remarkably empty; just as it was last night._

"Where is everybody?"

"Probably just in their homes, waiting for the Shin-Ra storm to finish coming through town."

"Well at least the shops are still open."

_We come up to a clothing store finally. Apparently the only one in town, and it's chock full of floral pattern button-ups, plain colored shirts, the occasional pair of jeans, but those are easily over-powered by the seasonal shorts._

"What's my spending limit?"

"Just keep it simple," _Zack looks around for someone and after a few moments of searching notices the store clerk coming in and out of a back room,_" excuse me where are the dressing rooms?"

_The clerk gives us an exceptionally dirty look and simply nods in the to the north wall where there is a set of saloon style doors._

"It looks like we're on our own here."

"Right." _After a few minutes of searching I settle on a few plain color t-shirts, a pair of jeans, and a pair of shorts. About this time Zack steps out of the dressing room wearing shorts and a red flower shirt…_

"You look like a tourist."

"Well technically we are tourists."

"True, now come on and ring this up so I can change."

"Alright, don't get your panties in a bunch." _The clerk scans the items that Zack and I brought up._

"That will be 75 gil."

"75!? That's outrageous! The signs say that everything is on sale!"

"That's for this afternoon. The sale doesn't start until then."

"Whatever, here."

_Zack pretty much throws the money at the owner._

"I told you that we weren't welcome here."

"Yea but I didn't think that they would gouge us like that right in front of our faces."

_I get into the dressing room and quickly change into a plain white t and the pair of shorts. Upon stepping out I get a funny look from Zack._

"What?"

"You are definitely not a shorts guy."

"Whatever Bro let's just get out of here before they decide to charge us for changing here as well."

"Any place in mind?"

"Actually if we could get something to eat that would be awesome." _Between the M.R.E. (Meal Ready to Eat) that I'd been having for the past couple weeks and the "food" last night, I'm ready for something with a little more substance to it._

"Alright I guess it's my treat then."

"Well it's not like we can go dutch here."

_Still cloudy outside, we walk around the town for about an hour simply admiring the view when we finally come to a decent looking restaurant and find a seat ourselves when a peppy waitress comes up._

"How can I help you boys?"

_I look at Zack and he nods understanding the gesture._

"Just give us whatever is on special today and a couple waters please."

"Will do!" _She leaves with a little wink. She actually kinda reminds me of "Yuffie."_

"You know that's like the fifth time you've said her name today."

_Zack pulls me from my dream world._

"Oh, sorry. I don't know what it is."

"Well she was very pretty, definitely too young for me though and almost too young for you."

"I thought she was beautiful."

"Well which ever, don't forget she did try to steal from us."

"I think that there's a lot more to her than that."

"What makes you say that? Did you have a nice long chat escorting her home last night?"

"Not really, I didn't get much else besides her name."

_The Waitress arrives with our plates, a simple platter of chicken and noodles._

"Here you go fellas, If you need anything else you just let me know."

_We thank her and eat our meals in silence. She eventually comes back around to give us our check,_

"Were you two planning on staying in town for long?"

"Just few days actually. Why?"

"Just wondering, there's going to be a festival in town tomorrow and thought you'd like to know."

"Are you gonna be there?" _Zack winks at the waitress._

"Maybe." _She returns the wink and walks off to one of her other tables._

"I swear Zack I can't take you anywhere."

"Well you can't be the only one with romance on the trip."

_I simply roll my eyes and shake my head. I don't even know if you can really call it romance, I don't even know if I'll ever see her again… I mean I didn't even get a glimpse of her anywhere today, maybe she was just leading me on to get my guard down so she could get another chance at my materia… But she didn't, women are so confusing sometimes. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful and nothing note-worthy. We didn't get back to the mansion until fairly late but Mr. Misugi was still up._

"How was your day boys?"

"Much better once we got out of our uniforms. People still have a lot of hard feelings towards Shin-Ra here."

"I don't blame them really…" _I decide to add my bit_

"Well I have no hard feelings towards you two, you were only doing your job. You had no idea as to what was truly going on… besides, if it wasn't for the war I'd probably still be running that dreadful shop."

_Zack and I both stare in awe as Mr. Misugi says this. We wish him go back and we make it back to the guest room._

"If only everyone saw us as he does."

"You know Cloud, you shouldn't worry so much about what people think of you… I mean, if they hate you simply because of the uniform then it's there loss."

"Yeah, but I just wish that they would realize that we're human too…"

"It's human nature Cloud, just try to get some sleep."

_Sleep, that shouldn't be too hard… I'm so tired, and what happened last night was a fluke, she was probably just trying to get herself out of trouble. I will prolly never see her ever again… that sucks…_

_Zzz…_

_Zzz…_

**Poke**

**-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-**

That's it for now folks, the story has been revived. So please R + R... Seeing as it's been so long please forgive me if there are any inconsistancies in the story, just let me know and i'll do my best to fix them.


	5. Part 5: NiceGuysDon'tAlwaysFinishLast

Here it is folks... Chapter 5, sorry though I had a very serious case of writers block and nothing was getting through, so I actually gave up for sometime when a friend of mine helped me break it, although she didn't really do anything lol (Thanks YaoiIsLove)

(This is a rewrite, better kiss scene, more dialogue. Thanks again YaoiIsLove)

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or any rights blah blah blah of Final Fantasy VII, although I do own a copy of the game…. But unfortunately that doesn't count in a legal sense….

And without further ado..

**Poke**

"Come on Zack just let me sleep…"

"Who's Zack?" _A woman's voice._

"Yuffie!"

"Shh… you don't want to wake your friend do you?"

_I shake my head trying to wake up a little. She motions to the door. I pick up my boots as to not make any noise on the way out. We get out the door and I awkwardly put them on while standing._

"What're you doing here?"

"I told you that I would find you. What? You didn't believe me?"

"No it's not that… I was just figuring that it would be a bit earlier than this."

"Well ninja can't be seen in the daylight."

_I laugh to myself at the last comment._

"A ninja? Hardly..."

"Last night was an off night!"

"Mr. Misugi seemed to recognize you pretty well, how many off nights have you had?"

"Jerk." _She gives me a glare and hits my shoulder._

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, the only reason he kept catching me is because of that damn security system of his."

"A precaution against you I presume?"

"No! … He had all of that even before the war!"

"Has he ever used it?"

"I don't think so… But enough about that come on I wanna show you something."

"Show me what? " _A little scared._

"You'll see."

"See what?"

"Just trust me!"

_Shaking my head and a little against my better judgment I let her pull me along. Yuffie goes off into her own little world as she's leading me through the dimly lit streets of Wutai. I wonder what she's thinking about. Becoming aware of the silence I started to feel a little awkward, feeling a little pressured I started talking about the first thing that came to mind._

"So what's with the materia obsession?" _ I mental facepalm._

"Huh?"

"Why the materia obsession?"

_She stops for a moment to strike a pose, _"I'm gonna return Wutai to its glory, I can't let it just be a tourist attraction and rot with all those slobs from Midgar… No offense."

"None taken… I'm not from Midgar."

"You aren't from Midgar?" _Her surprise is understandable._

"No I'm actually from a town called Nibelhiem."

"Where's that at?"

"It's a small town in the Central Continent, just about the only great thing about it is that it's not too far from Gold Saucer, on the southern base of the mountains."

"Isn't there a Mako Reactor there?"

"Yeah at the top of the mountain."

"Must have been hard to leave everyone behind to join Shinra…"

"Not as hard as you might think, not really anyone to leave."

"Any family or friends?"

"Just my Mom, no brothers or sisters, my dad died when I was young, before I could remember, and I didn't really have any friends, maybe just Tifa."

_Her face saddens a little._" Your girlfriend."

"Oh No! We were just friends, We'd never be anything more… Besides I don't think I'll ever even go back there."

_The glint comes back to her eyes._ "Almost there."

_I look up and see the entrance of a cave._

"Don't be scared Cloud it's perfectly safe and well lit. Come on I'll protect you if anything jumps out at us."

"I'd like to see that."

_It's pretty quite as she leads me through the cave, but at some point a bat flies past us and Yuffie jumps into my arms screaming and I pulled her as close as I could… I wasn't scared, it just felt right. Our eyes meet, _"You'll protect me huh?"

_Yuffie leaps from my arms, _"Shut up! It just surprised me that's all."

"Sorry" _I almost pull her back to me when she starts shouting._

"We made it!" _She checks her watch,_" And just in time too!"

"In time for what?"

"The sun rising over Wutai."

_I look out and we are standing on a pathway on the side of the mountain, the face of an ancient guardian right there overlooking the city. She sits right on the edge and pats the ground beside her indicating that I should sit down._

"I used to come here when I was a little girl, when things got a little hectic at home or even just to relax, but I haven't come up here in years, not since I began my mission."

"I imagine it's going to be tough. You ever thought about getting help?"

_She looks at me… but this time it's more like she's looking __through__ me,_" You saying that you think I couldn't manage it all on my own?"

_I panic…_"Sorry I didn't mean that at all! I just thought you know with taking all the materia in the world you might get tired or need someone to.."

_She presses a finger to my lips."_Would you like to help me Cloud?"

_After spending a moment think of how soft her hands are. _"Yeah, I would actually." _She smiles at me._

_I didn't realize until now but, technically, I had just committed treason for a girl I just met._

_She started shivering, I hadn't noticed but it was fairly cold out this morning, taking it as my cue I wrapped my arm around her to try and warm her._

_She pointed out,_" It's starting."

_I looked over Wutai just in time to see the sky starting to brighten, making it's slow crawl from black to blue… But I wasn't really watching the sunrise that morning, I was watching Yuffie watch the sunrise. Watching the burning morning sun illuminate her face giving it a radiant quality just like an, "Angel"_

"You say something Cloud?"

"No."

_And that was the end of it, the sun had risen above the Pagoda by the time we finally got up from where we were sitting, Which was a great thing because my leg had fallen asleep after only a few minutes of sitting there. Yuffie started to stretch from where she was standing and she looked at me with a smile and her eyes opened with surprise, that's when I looked down and saw that her foot had slipped over the edge. My trained reflexes kicked in and I reached out to grab her catching her by the wrist, but in pulling her back my own sleeping leg had caused me to lose my balance, fortunately I was falling backwards pulling Yuffie with me. She land's on my chest while I have both arms around her. She had her face buried into me protected from all harm. She spoke muffled by my chest. _

"Thank you..."

"For a ninja you are awfully clumsy."

"I was distracted..."

"By what?"

"You..."

"How am I distracting?"

"It's hard to explain."

"Try."

"I like you Cloud, there's something special about you. I don't know what it is but it's something."

_She likes me... I guess I should've seen it with the way she's been acting but I've always been bad at picking up signals. I almost don't know how to react so i say the first thing that comes to mind._

"I like you too Yuffie."

_She lifted herself from my chest and opens her eyes and looks up at me, just staring at me for what seems to be an eternity. She closed those beautiful eyes and leaned into me and kissed me hard. I closed my eyes and pulled her further into me and as we kissed, feeling her soft lips against mine, her hands running through my hair. Something awoke inside me and I started to truely return this kiss following her lead, running my hands up and down her back and underneath her shirt feeling her skin for what seemed like the first time. Tasting her tongue as it darted in and out of my mouth. Stoping every now and the only to catch a few, ragged breaths. __**POUND POUND POUND **__the beating of our our hearts almost in unison. Just the two of us in the entire world. Not until we finally stopped with eyes still closed, did we realize what time it was._

_She stood up quickly _"Oh god we need to go, It's the morning you have to go to your friend I've got something to.." _I stop her and pull her in for another kiss, her mouth opening up to mine._

_She slowly opens her eyes._"I… I'll see you… tonight."

"But Yuffie…" _And before I could finish she was already gone, I wanted to tell her that I have to leave tomorrow, but that I'll be back for her as soon as I can unlist._

_Fortunately from the cliff side I could see Mr. Misugi's house to get my bearings straight and made it back there in no time. Mr. Misugi must have been out and thankfully Zack was still asleep. I pulled my boots off and rolled onto my bed, no sooner than my head had hit the pillow had I fallen asleep myself. I dreamed too, but of my mother actually, I was telling her that I had met a wonderful girl when.._

_**SMACK!**_


End file.
